Mahuike

Mahuike (Mahuika / Mahu-ika) is the Marquesan reflex of the pan-Polynesian fire-deity of the underworld. Handy's Marquesan Legends records that Maui 'obtained fire from his grandfather Mahuike in the lower regions' — making Mahuike the keeper of fire in the Po and the grandfather of the culture-hero Mahui, from whom Mahui wins fire for humankind. Listed among Handy's great narrative figures (Native Culture p. 247).

Domains

• fire and the underworld

Powers

• Keeping and giving of fire
• holds the fire of the lower world in his body

Relations

• grandparent: Mahui

Sources

• E. S. Craighill Handy, Marquesan Legends (Bishop Museum Bulletin 69, 1930); cf. the pan-Polynesian Mahuika fire-deity (E. Tregear, Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary, 1891, s.v. Mahuika).